This specification provides the definition of the Drawing organisation message (CONDRO) to be used in Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) between trading partners involved in administration, commerce and transport.

The message CONDRO is intended to describe the general (project) organisation and structure, valid for a whole project or environment.

The whole process of exchanging engineering or CAD (Computer Aided Design) files between different parties within one project will be supported by EDIFACT messages. The message CONDRO is one of these messages.

The Drawing organisation message may be used for both national and international applications. It is based on universal practice related to administration, commerce and transport, and is not dependent on the type of business or industry.

The following descriptions refer to the exchange of engineering/CAD files, but do not exclude any other type of "native" files, e.g. files originating from software packages and tools like word-processing, spreadsheet, DTP (Desk Top Publishing), graphics and so on.

CONDRO is the EDIFACT message to initiate the future exchange of engineering/CAD files, and does not consist of any engineering or graphical information. Its aim is to acquaint the participant of a project with the existing organisation, the used computer environment, the agreed conventions for structuring/naming the transferred data and in a second application to announce any changes to the above mentioned agreement. The exchange of all engineering and graphical information is administered by the EDIFACT message CONDRA (Drawing Administration). This information will be transferred by existing standard graphical exchange formats or native formats. Changes in the agreements and conventions should be minimised and be made at the beginning of a project or exchange process. Consequently it is not necessary to repeat the description of the files' organisation with every exchange of engineering/CAD files. This means not only a reduction of data volume at each exchange, but also avoiding the exchange of redundant data.

A group of segments used for quoting references and their relevant dates applicable to the message. For the building industry the following recommendation is given: in the first occurrence of this segment group the project references, if relevant, should be given, in order to identify the project to which this message relates. In any later recurrence of this segment group, references to other messages (e.g. the original CONDRO when it is an update) or documents, relevant to this message, may be quoted.

A segment for quoting the unique references which can be the project number for which this message is relevant, or, in the case of a reference to another message or document, that message or document's unique identifier.

This segment can contain any textual information relevant to the reference quoted in the previous RFF segment, e.g. a small project or message/document description and/or other narrative, for additional information.

A segment identifying name and address of a party, in coded or clear form, and its function relevant to the Drawing Organisation Message. This is to identify each partner involved in the future exchange of CAD files. It is recommended that where possible only the coded form of the party ID should be specified.

Firstly, it can be used to quote specific references for each partner for internal use. Examples of references: a partner may require a internal project number or a DP number.

Secondly, the main function of this segment group, is to describe for each partner his internal computer environment, from the hardware platform and operating system to the software implemented. For each partner several environments may be described, as, particularly in large organisations, different environments can be in use simultaneously. Each environment will be identified through a unique reference number specific to that partner.

In this segment specific internal references will be quoted, as and if required. When this segment group is used to describe the computer environment, this segment which will specify the unique reference number by which, in future, the following computer environment details for this party can be identified.

By repeating this segment, it will describe, at each occurrence, one of the party's computer environments, identified in the previous RFF segment. The computer environment details will consist of, for example, hardware platform, operating system, software in use, converter etc.

This segment specifies the location of the contact described in the previous CTA segment. In large organisations and construction projects it is possible that persons are not necessarily on the same internal site or construction site specified in the previous LOC segment in segment group 2. This segment also enables the specification of a more accurate internal site location.

In this segment group a "contractual document" can be described that is relevant to a certain project or project phase. A contractual document consists of one or more computer files which be quoted and linked by a file identification to the corresponding contractual document.

In this segment group files may be identified which will form part of the previously quoted contractual document. These computer files are external ones which will not necessarily be part of the exchange of the message.

Firstly, information about all kinds of lists (like naming conventions, libraries used etc.) with their object descriptions and other details relevant to the exchanged engineering/CAD files.

Secondly, detailed descriptions about the structure of the engineering/CAD files.

In both cases, the information is organised hierarchically in several levels. The level will be identified first and will contain its own specific set of information, like technical data, references, etc. This segment group therefore varies depending on the type of information, the application of the segments and whether they will be used or not.

This segment will give detailed information of the position in a co-ordinate system in case the structure of an engineering/CAD file is described (e.g. the co-ordinate details of a layer group or a layer in a CAD file).